Some questionable ethics in recent studies are making the rounds. The process and ethics of Didier Raoult’s work, which led to the use of hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) as a Covid treatment, was scrutinized in the latest Science Magazine. Raoult was saying, ‘I understand everything, I have a solution,’ and people want
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A Puff of Absurdity: How to Know
We need to fight back on the idea that there’s nothing we can really know. When I taught, more and more I’d run up against the claim that there’s nothing we can know in the world. I believe that it’s a dangerous situation if we think science is on par
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Party Like It’s 1699
It feels like there are three realities out there. It’s not just three separate groups of people, because lots of people straddle a couple or even all these realities. One reality is full of facts and figures. Climate change is being exacerbated by continued fossil fuel use and beef farming. The pandemic
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: How Vaccines Work
Poilievre wants to make it illegal to have mandated vaccinations as a condition of employment and travel. He introduced the bill last June, and a second reading in the house is currently in progress. (FYI – It has to pass through three readings in the house, then three in the senate
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: The Science of Handwashing
I just watched Painkiiller about the Purdue Pharma, Sacklers, oxycontin scandal. It’s okay background viewing – less entertaining if you know the whole story already – except the occasional testimonials from the families of real victims was an excellent addition. They absolutely destroyed me. An important piece of the puzzle around getting
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Science as a Way of Thinking
Some Carl Sagan on Charlie Rose: “We’ve arranged a society based on science and technology, in which nobody understands anything about science technology. And this combustible mixture of ignorance and power, sooner or later, is going to blow up in our faces. Who is running the science and technology in
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: On Debating Science
Dr. Peter Hotez is a medical doctor in Texas who did his undergrad at Yale and his medical degree at Cornell. He has been successful at creating Covid vaccine technology cheaply and patent-free so it can be distributed to low-income countries. His work has been “nominated for the 2022 Nobel
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Evidence on Both Sides
A school board in Winnipeg passed a motion to strongly recommend masking at school to protect from SARS-CoV-2 and other viruses currently affecting kids. Many of the comments on that post call for a full mandate, and one called out trustees for not shutting down an anti-science delegate at their
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: All Natural Misinformation
This thread is from Dr. Kay M. Dingwell on her experience shifting from natural is necessarily best to incorporating some scientific research into her decision-making: I used to be vaccine hesitant. Had my kids on a modified schedule and felt I was VERY educated. Here are posts I made in
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: On Finding Answers in Research
I recently posted, on social media, a list of studies showing the effectiveness of masks and of mandates. One commenter said he doesn’t trust studies because they could be biased, and instead he has used raw data to come to his own conclusions. A few problems here: If a group
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: On Fostering Illusions and the Qualitative Leap
What do you do when well-meaning people dear to you advise you to ignore your doctors? (And what if the doctors are wrong?) I generally rally against non-scientifically verifiable medical claims. I’m pretty open minded and willing to try anything, but I also scrutinize any available research before I write
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: On Slippery Arguments and Women at Google
You can read most of the infamous Google memo here, and for the record, I don’t think opening up this discussion should be a fireable offence, but I’m just concerned with this one piece of the puzzle right now: “the distribution of preferences and abilities of men and women differ
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: On Hedges’ Veganism Claims
Chris Hedges’ recent article, “Eating Our Way to Disease,” largely just advertises the new doc What the Health: “Kip Andersen and Keegan Kuhn—whose documentary Cowspiracy, about the environmental impact of the animal agriculture industry, led me to become a vegan—recently released a new film, What the Health, which looks at how
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